In her outstanding article, "Peak Oil and the Preservation of Knowledge", ( http://www.energyskeptic.com/PeakOil_and_Preservation_of_Knowledge.htm ) Alice Friedemann makes the following statement:

"Jared Diamond looks at the recent example of the Rwandan genocide in "Collapse". Although most people think this was an ethnic struggle between the majority Hutu and ruling Tutsi, that’s because most people understand the world in terms of ethnic conflict.

Since there were areas where Hutu killed Hutu, Diamond concludes that the real reason for the slaughter was for ecological reasons: "Look at the land: steep hills farmed right up to the crests, without any protective terracing; rivers thick with mud from erosion; extreme deforestation leading to irregular rainfall and famine; staggeringly high population densities; the exhaustion of the topsoil; falling per-capita food production. This was a society on the brink of ecological disaster, and if there is anything that is clear from the study of such societies it is that they inevitably descend into genocidal chaos"."

No one seems to be mentioning that the Hutu Politicians were being 'picked off' one after the other, and left unchecked would have left them lame and leaderless.

Radical Tutsi rebels on the border were apparently involved.

HISTORY is always helpful to understand the present.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Rwanda

That's about all I have to say on the matter. It fills in the gaps and gives a broader perspective.

Genocides don't just 'suddenly happen'....they have roots, background, reasons.

Questions for consideration.

-What was the predominant Tutsi attitude towards Hutu ?
-HOw did they perceive themselves (The Tutsi) in regard to the Hutu?
-Did the Tutsi believe they had some kind of 'manifest destiny' to rule the Hutu ?
-Do the Tutsi have connections with a wider cross border Tutsi movement, and does this have any geo political implications?

So, to answer the question 'where does the hatred come from'.. I'd guess "All of the above"

"Love your neighbour as yourself" Jesus.

Thanks for an interesting and stimulating article.

I too was horrified about events in Rwanda (and later in Yugoslavia) and came to the realisation that people are capable of anything, given the right circumstances.

Religion provides no solace, given the conviction of a number of Catholic nuns who actively participated in the slaughter.

I refer anybody interested in this phenomenon to this article -

http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/jmueller/is2000.pdf

It goes some way in understanding the "human condition" and the nature of the modern world where some people assume that we are in some sort of global ethnic/religious conflict.

If you have more and more people, on a limited amount of land,
with limited and scarce resources, eventually the crunch
will come, for whatever excuse is made. What happened
on Easter Island, when the whole thing eventually collapsed,
makes for interesting reading. We ignore the laws of
nature at our peril.

The first thing that Rwanda needs, to stop a repeat of
history, is the availability of good family planning
for all its citizens. Catholic commando squads burning
condoms, as happened there in the past, is not the way
its going to happen.

It seems that we humans prefer to learn the hard way.